For thousands of years, the American bison shaped the Great Plains. Feeding nations, sustaining cultures, and changing the land beneath their hooves.

Then came the hide hunters, railroads, expanding settlement, government policy, and an economic system that turned the bison into a commodity.

By the late 1800s, an animal that had once seemed as permanent as the prairie itself stood on the edge of extinction.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

Ranchers, Native people, conservationists, scientists, and eventually tribal nations helped bring the bison back. Today, roughly half a million live across North America.

The story isn't as simple as heroes and villains. It’s a story of abundance and destruction, commerce and culture, loss and recovery. And it may be one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the American West.

📚 Read “The American Bison: The Heartbeat of the Plains” in the Journal at Way Out West.

🔗https://ridewayoutwest.com/american-bison-history/

Saddle Up for a New Adventure!

Welcome to "CowboysWest" online magazine!

Like you, I have a passion for the rural American West and the iconic lifestyles found there. My name is C.J. Hadley and for more than 35 years I devoted my life to preserving and protecting its stories from the past, news of the present, and promise of the future through RANGE magazine. That award-winning quarterly is now run by a younger, more savvy publisher, but the fire still burns in my heart for the open spaces and freedom of the cowboying way of life.

CowboysWest is a FREE online magazine — produced by a passionate quartet of dirt-road lovers. It is full of photos, articles and humor about the life and challenges of working and living on America's Western rangelands. Inside each issue you will find beautiful photography, the best in humor and cowboy poetry, outstanding journalism, heartwarming tales, and unique perspectives on the political landscape of the day.

Below is a link to our first issue. The second will appear in September. Check out CowboysWest and send me email addresses of your family, friends and colleagues so that they, too, can enjoy the best the West has to offer. As mentioned, there is no cost to subscribe.

C.J. Hadley, publisher,

info@cowboyswest.com

https://cowboyswest.com/

Read the Online Magazine, then invite your friends and family to enjoy CowboysWest at no charge by sharing this link.

https://cowboyswest.com/

Paradise Valley, Montana

Dean Thompson is back in the arena 🙌

The 2024 World Champion bareback rider, who recently finished months of chemotherapy for Burkitt’s Lymphoma, returned to the practice pen over the weekend ahead of his expected return at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo this Thursday.

You can watch Thompson compete in Hermiston, Oregon on Thursday at 10:30P ET on Cowboy+.

Per his wife Chezney's Instagram:

"To see this man grinning from ear to ear is what it is all about.

"I’ll be honest… I thought he was a little crazy for getting on so soon - but it turns out, sometimes you need a little crazy to accomplish big goals.

"You’re incredible Deano💛"

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db3ldUvK2B6/

The reigning bareback World Champion, who was aiming to return at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Oregon, on Thursday, said his doctor “strongly suggested a few more weeks off,” saying the re-injury risk is still too high after his neck surgery for two herniated discs in early June.

“And if I have another surgery, [the] chances of me ever riding again are too low,” Steiner posted. “I’m upset about it but at the same time excited to just get better and come back when I know I’m gonna be ok.”

Steiner said he “will be back in a couple of weeks.”

There’s more than one way to skin a cat but this way works for me. Is this how you were taught?

Courtesy of What A Cowboy Wears

https://youtube.com/@whatacowboywears

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah.

Shambry, Maggie, and Byers Burson are making sure “𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸“ is ready to show in The Run For A Million Cowboy Heritage Ranch Challenge this week with their dad, Four Sixes Cattle Division General Manager Dusty Burson!

At 13, he climbed on his first bull in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

In 1982, he rode 158 bulls, traveled roughly 120,000 miles chasing rodeo, and became a PRCA World Champion.

Six years later, at the Reno Rodeo, a bull ran over him and ripped his left ear clean off.

He kept coming back.

Not because it was easy.

Because eight seconds was worth everything.

His name was Charlie Sampson.

Remember the names.

Remember the stories.

Remember the cowboys.

REAL HISTORY. REAL COWBOYS.

RANK EIGHT ROUGH STOCK.

LIVE 8 SECONDS AT A TIME.

https://tcrranchwear.com/collections/rank8-rough-stock

https://charliesampson.com/

https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/collections/awards/pbr/honorees/charlie-sampson/

https://www.instagram.com/bullridincharlie

Sam’s first Western role was in 1967’s THE WAY WEST. He has become a stalwart in the genre, from classics like The Sacketts (1979), Conagher (1991), and TOMBSTONE (1993), to modern series like The Ranch and 1883.

Sam’s first Western role was in 1967’s THE WAY WEST. He has become a stalwart in the genre, from classics like The Sacketts (1979), Conagher (1991), and TOMBSTONE (1993), to modern series like The Ranch and 1883.

It was dust in the wind. Caryl and I honestly thought we'd made a few million dollar mistake buying this ranch. Short growing season. Short season irrigation rights.

The mile-and-a-half-long fields were mostly weeds or bare dirt. Part of it was still stripped to dust from last year's potato harvest. The irrigation was hashed too - broken pipe scattered everywhere, fences falling, two old pivots barely limping along. We genuinely didn't know if we could make it work.

But we got busy anyway. Caryl started building cover crop mixes. That first year we had 18 different types of seed falling through the old drill. Meanwhile Scott and I went after the irrigation, putting money into a new pivot and getting the old ones running again.

By the end of the first season, most of the ground had living plants covering it. A lot of it was weeds, but it was cover, and even though it looked embarrassing, we came out a little money ahead baling some of it and grazing the rest high intensity/short duration with long rest periods. Through the winter we fed on the ground while the cows polished off the cover crops.

Year two: fewer weeds and more production. Year three we added perennials planted with the cover crops for a total of nearly 40 species and varieties. By year four the perennials were established, some annuals reseeded, and we grazed it late into the season.

And this year, year five, the land is finally paying us back. It's all diverse perennials now. We just calculated the first cut hay yield on this short-season ranch: 3 tons per acre, with another 1.5 to 2 tons of grazing likely this fall, on ground that couldn't produce a ton of dry matter an acre when we bought it.

I'm telling you this because Caryl and I are still astounded. All we put in was sweat, seed, old equipment, and cows. Dirt that used to blow from my hands is soil now, full of life. It went from gray ash to chocolate cake. It smells good. It’s alive. It’s beautiful.

I'm also telling you this because a lot of advisers will tell you it can't be done without spray, fertilizer, and monocrops. But in just a few years, we saw that nature still holds all the cards.

Lean in.

— Glenn

https://www.instagram.com/alderspring\_ranch

https://www.alderspring.com/

"So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. so let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fail." (Hebrews 4:9-11, NLT).

Lord, help us enter Your rest, in Jesus' name.

(Art by R.S. Riddick, used by permission. Thanks, and God bless you.)

Please check out today's poem, "Noise," and the daily "Pass the Reins" devotional at: https://www.godshorsebackgospel.com/daily-poem/noise.

Thanks, and God bless your day. (Please share.)

Thank You, God. Cooper Filipek is up, and walking and talking this morning (8-8-26) after successful surgery yesterday (8-7-26) to repair the broken L5 vertebra in his lower back after surviving the gnarly rollover at the rodeo in Logan, Utah on Thursday night (8-6-26).

Continued prayers, @slide_and_ride. 💪🏼🍀

According to Cooper’s dad, Casey, Friday’s surgery to stabilize the broken L5 vertebra in his lower back with rods and screws was successful. But doctors say the 23-year-old 2025 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association bareback riding champ is expected to be sidelined for a year.

So sorry this happened, Cooper, but sure thankful it wasn’t worse. Love to you and your family.

— from rodeo journalist Kendra Santos

[EDIT: SEE THE UPDATE ELSEWHERE! HE'S ALREADY UP AND WALKING!]